


She's Just A Woman

by phoenixnz



Category: Smallville, Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:32:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7661470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Sam investigate a murder in Oklahoma and run into Chloe, who is also investigating. Dean and Chloe clash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This version of Chloe is a little bit more cynical and a little bit more of a badass (sort of like the Chloe from Collateral, without the Chlollie angst).
> 
> Title is from a Led Zeppelin song - it's an alternate title to the song, I think, but it just suited Dean's view.

Sam was on the laptop as usual, trolling through various news sites to find their next job. There were times when Dean wished they could just take a vacation, but sadly that never seemed to happen.

They’d been through a lot in the past few years. The many times they’d ‘died’, or should have at least, the battles with Lucifer, getting Sam’s soul back, the friends and enemies they’d gathered: Castiel, Crowley, Bobby. People they’d lost: Dad, Mom, Jo, Ellen. When did it end, Dean thought. Would it ever end?

It seemed that no matter what, they would always be hunters. He’d once harboured the self-delusion that once they found the demon that killed their mother, they could start over. Live a normal life. Dean had long since given up that illusion of the apple pie life.

“Hey, got something,” Sam said, interrupting Dean’s reverie.

“What is it?”

Sam showed him the screen. There had been a murder discovered earlier that morning in a small town in Oklahoma. Not much was said, but it appeared the victim had studied Wicca. The only information police had released was that she had been brutally stabbed to death.

It sounded like any normal murder, apart from the fact she was a member of the local Wiccan group. The group had posted something on Facebook accusing the police of covering up certain information. Especially that there had been some kind of symbol painted on the wall in the victim’s blood.

It was nearly four hundred miles from their current locale to the little town. Dean figured it would take them about six hours give or take to drive there. If they left now, they would have to sleep in the car, but they could begin their investigation in the morning. It was highly doubtful the cops would have completed their crime scene analysis by then.

“Grab your stuff,” Dean said, feeling a little like that old guy on the tv show that he would never in a million years admit to Sam that he watched sometimes. The man was kind of brusque in manner, especially how he would tell his subordinates to grab their gear every time they had a case.

Sam continued to research the case on the laptop as they drove south, looking for any characteristics that stood out. He kept up a commentary, telling Dean what he’d found, which sadly wasn’t a lot.

There were already dozens of comments below the article from various groups, condemning the killer, saying it was a hate crime against Wiccans.

“Here’s something interesting. There’s another post from someone that says there was another victim who died in similar circumstances. But this was in California.”

Dean frowned. That sounded a little out of the ordinary. If the death was by supernatural means, it didn’t seem likely that a demon, or whatever, would target one person and then move on to another victim in another town. Which made him more curious about the victim.

“Anything on the victim?”

Sam shook his head. “Her mom lives in town though.”

They made a plan. First they would talk to the local police, pretending to be Federal agents. If the murder was the same in nature as the one in California, that would give them jurisdiction if they were real agents. Next they’d talk to the mother, see what they could learn from her.

As predicted, it was the early hours of the morning when they arrived in the city of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The city was average by usual standards with a population of just under 100,000. Big enough to have a municipal police force.

Dean pulled up in a rest stop just on the outskirts of town so they could stretch out and sleep until an appropriate hour to call in at the local police station. It wasn’t ideal. Baby might be a big car but they needed a lot of leg room. Maybe in the first few years they’d been hunting together, he and Sam had learned to deal with the problem and had managed to sleep, but he still preferred a good bed, or a real one at least, in a motel, or at Bobby's. He was getting too old to be sleeping in the car.

After a restless night, where he woke feeling as if he hadn’t had any sleep at all, Dean drove into town and stopped at the police station. They had changed into their ‘Fed’ suits, making sure they had found the appropriate identification.

Dean still remembered the first few times they had done this. He had objected to the fact they had had to buy the suits, thinking it was a lot of their ‘hard-earned’ money. Okay, so he’d mostly got the money through credit card fraud or hustling pool, but hustling pool was hard, man, he thought with a grin.

“What’s so funny?” Sam asked.

“Nothin’. Let’s go,” he said, opening the car door.

He gazed at the uniformed cop on the desk. The woman was in her fifties and seemed to be chewing gum. Dean spotted the yellow nicotine stains on her fingers and realised the gum was some kind of quitting smoking aid. He thanked his lucky stars that was something he had never taken up. Mind you, he thought, the drinking could be bad enough.

“He’p you?” the woman asked.

She scowled at them when they flashed their i.d.s and turned away from the desk without acknowledging them. Dean looked at his brother, cocking an eyebrow. Sam shrugged in reply.

A large, obese cop wearing a uniform shirt that looked as if it was about to pop all its buttons glared at them.

“What you guys want?” he asked.

Dean thought about correcting the man’s grammar but decided he’d better not, knowing the cop would just think he was being a smartass.

“We’re here about the Curtis homicide,” he said, showing the man his i.d again, just in case they didn’t get it the first time.

“Yeah, and?”

“We think it may be similar to another case we’re working on,” Sam interjected quietly. “We’d like to see the case file.”

The man shrugged but led them through the main door into the bullpen. A detective met them.

“You think they’re connected?” he asked as they looked through the file.

“We won’t know for sure until we’ve checked everything out,” Dean said diplomatically.

“Nothing was mentioned in the paper about anything written on the wall of her apartment but some of her group seemed to think there was.”

“Well, you wouldn’t tell them everything, would you?” the detective said with a smirk. “S.O.P, you know.”

“So how would the group know about the writing?” Sam pointed out.

The detective shrugged. “Dunno. We’re following it up though.”

They nodded. Cops usually liked to keep certain information back from the media so if anyone confessed to the crime, they would know the real deal from a fake confession. It had been known to happen where a suspect had confessed to a crime, giving information that had proved to be false based on the crime scene.

Dean decided it was best they split the work. Sam would go with the detective and talk to the coroner while he would go and talk to the mother and see what he could get out of her.

Shannon Curtis had clearly been crying. Normally Dean would have pulled out all the stops, especially since the mother appeared to be quite an attractive woman, although at least a good ten years older than Dean. Not that that had ever worried him in the past.

Still, she was a grieving mother.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” he said. “And I hate to do this, but I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Uh …” The brunette seemed uncertain. Dean tried for a disarming smile.

“I’m sorry,” he said, putting on a sympathetic look. “But if we want to find out who did this to your daughter …”

“Yes,” she said, opening the door fully. “I suppose.”

He followed her inside. From the aroma from the kitchen, he could tell she had just made coffee.

“Would you like some coffee, Agent …”

“Bonham,” Dean said, although he had already given her his fake name at the door. She clearly wasn’t a fan of classic rock, or else he was sure she would have recognised the alias. “Coffee would be great, thank you.”

She sent him into the living room to sit. Dean saw a couple of photos on the side table. One was clearly a graduation photo. Simone Curtis was a pretty brunette, with a slightly round face. She wore glasses with thick plastic frames which were not unattractive. She clearly got her looks from her mother as they shared a lot of the same facial characteristics.

“That was when Simone graduated high school.”

“Pretty girl,” Dean said.

Shannon nodded. “She was very pretty. Smart too. Graduated in the top five percent of her class. She was asked to join Mensa when she was fifteen, but her father didn’t want her to. Thought it might give her unrealistic expectations.”

“So, uh, what do you know about Simone’s involvement in Wicca?”

Shannon frowned. “Honestly, I didn’t know anything about it. I was surprised she was into that stuff.”

Dean frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

“We’re a good family. Maybe we’re not that religious - we don’t go to church or anything, but we don’t go for that other stuff either.”

If there was one thing Dean had learned over the thirty-odd years he had lived a hunter’s life, he knew that it wasn’t all black and white. Wiccans weren’t witches - not like the witches he’d met anyway, but still, some people considered it to be almost like devil worship. It was an old argument and something he didn’t want to spend time debating.

“I see. Did Simone have any enemies, or anyone who would want to hurt her?”

“I …” She paused. Somebody was knocking on the front door. “Excuse me.”

Dean sipped his coffee, making a face. The coffee was too weak, but he wasn’t going to complain. He strained to hear the voices. The new visitor was clearly a woman, but he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.

A minute later Shannon returned with a woman in tow. The woman had a petite frame, slim build and shortish blonde hair, aged probably a few years younger than Dean.

“Agent Bonham, this is Chloe. She’s from Simone’s group.”

Chloe sent him an odd look, but didn’t comment.

“Mrs Curtis, I’m so sorry to have called in on you like this.”

“It’s all right,” she said. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Oh no, thank you,” Chloe said, her laugh almost like a tinkle which usually grated on Dean’s nerves. “I try never to drink coffee, or tea.” She didn’t go into detail but Dean rolled his eyes, guessing she was one of ‘those’ people who refused stimulants of any kind.

Dean glared at the woman, annoyed. What was she doing here?

“Uh, Mrs Curtis, sorry, I do need to ask these questions.”

“Oh, yes, Agent. No, Simone was a sweet girl. I don’t think she had any enemies.”

“What about the group she was with?” he asked, aiming another glare at Chloe. She just sent him an innocent look.

“Did Simone keep anything here?” she interrupted.

“Uh, no. She had her own apartment.”

The questions continued on a back and forth, as if the older woman was an umpire at a sports match. Dean knew it was going nowhere and it was all due to the other woman. She appeared to know very little about Simone although she was trying hard to cover up that fact.

Pissed, Dean could only do his best to get information out of the mother, but it was fairly clear she knew nothing and had no idea who or what had killed her daughter.

He studied the younger woman, trying to determine if she was friend or foe. He occasionally caught the smirks aimed in his direction, as if she knew something she wasn’t telling. Dean decided to dislike her based on that alone.

He met Sam in a local diner, not far from the police precinct. Sam quickly filled him in on the young woman’s cause of death. She had not been just stabbed. She had been mutilated. Her death had been neither quick nor painless. Dean imagined the terror the girl must have felt. He still remembered the terror he’d felt at being ripped apart by Hellhounds, so he could sympathise.

They agreed to visit the crime scene later that day, ordering themselves some lunch. Just as the waitress had taken their orders, the bell above the door jangled and opened. The waitress started for the door, but the woman who entered just stood there, looking around. The diner wasn’t hugely busy, but there were a few people eating.

Dean groaned quietly. Chloe!

She spotted them and waved her hand at the waitress, striding purposefully toward them. She’d changed clothes since she’d left the Curtis house, her slim legs encased in tight jeans and what appeared to be cowboy boots with high wide heels, making her look taller than she was. She was wearing a blouse with a belt loosely slung around her waist, emphasising the narrow waist and slim hips. Her blonde hair seemed slightly mussed. She had a confidence about her that to Dean was kind of hot.

Sam raised an eyebrow as she approached their table and smirked at him.

“Let me guess. You’d be Agent Jimmy Page, or … no, Agent Robert Plant?”

Dean had been taking a sip from his water glass and almost choked on it.

“Uh …” Sam began, looking questioningly at Dean.

“What do you want?” Dean growled.

She grabbed a chair from another table and spun it around, sitting with her chest facing the back. Dean glared at her. Who invited her to this party?

“Miss, there are other tables,” the waitress said, clearly pointing out that she was blocking the aisle.

“She won’t be staying,” Dean told her.

Chloe smirked at him. “Says you.”

“Fuck off!” he snarled.

Sam cocked an eyebrow. Dean glared back at his brother, then turned back to the woman.

“Agent Bonham? Really? You know, you’re lucky Shannon’s not a classic rock fan. She would have seen through you in a second.”

“What … do … you … want?” Dean said with a growl.

“Information. I want to know what you know about Simone’s death.”

“Go fuck yourself,” he told her.

She stood up abruptly. “Fine. Be that way. I’ll just make a call.” She mimed taking a phone from her pocket. “Yeah, 911? I just saw these two guys pull up in a POS Impala and it sure looks like they’ve got a cache of weapons in the trunk. I think they might be serial killers or something.”

“Dean,” Sam murmured warningly.

Oh, this bitch was going down. Dean got to his feet, ignoring the waitress who was bringing their food out and grabbed Chloe’s arm in a grip designed to bruise.

“Ow!” she said.

“First, don’t diss the car, lady. Second, sit the fuck down.”

She pretended to be scared, her eyes widening.

“Ooh, what’re you gonna do? Spank me?”

Dean hauled her in to the booth, forcing her to sit beside him. The waitress stared at him.

“Um, are you … is she staying?”

“Order something,” Dean told her.

“I’ll have a double bacon cheeseburger with a side salad. With a double chocolate shake. And it’s on his tab.”

Like hell, Dean thought. Sam rolled his eyes.

Dean ignored her and smiled at the waitress. The waitress smiled back, slowly relaxing as Dean flirted with her, finally making her laugh.

Chloe was watching him, canting her head.

“Oh god,” she moaned. “I should have guessed you’d be the type.”

“What type is that?” he said, glaring at her.

“The type who thinks he’s God’s gift.”

Dean pretended to shrug modestly. Chloe leaned forward and spoke in his ear.

“Baby, if you were my gift, I’d pray you were returnable.”

Sam just about split his sides laughing. Dean wasn’t sure if he was laughing at what she’d said or Dean’s face afterward. At any rate, it pissed him off.

“Bitch!” he said, not sure who he was addressing.

Sam quickly sobered and began picking at his salad. Dean ate his hamburger. Finally, the waitress brought out Chloe’s meal and she attacked it with gusto. Dean stopped mid-bite, staring as she ate. Damn, the woman ate even more than him and that was saying something. Sure as hell looked like she enjoyed her food.

She finally realised he was staring.

“What?” she asked, her mouth full of cheeseburger.

“Nothing. I’ve just never seen a chick eat like you before.”

She dropped the food on her plate and glared at him.

“Eat like what? What the hell is that supposed to mean? And chick? Are you twelve?”

“Uh, I guess he means …” Sam interjected, but she aimed a glare at him.

“Was I asking you, Chucklehead?”

Sam looked taken aback.

“Okay, that about does it,” Dean said. “Listen, bitch, we didn’t invite you here, so either shut your yap or learn not to be so fucking rude!”

She snorted. “I’m rude! When practically every word out of your mouth has been full of vitriol? What’s your problem?”

For probably the first time in his life, Dean didn’t know what to say or do, except do something which would wipe that arrogant look off the woman’s face and teach her a lesson. Sam called out a warning.

Chloe sent him a challenging glare before deliberately taking a bite of her cheeseburger. Dean was so close to smacking her. Then Sam kicked him hard in the shin. He looked at his brother, frowning, before returning to his meal.

Chloe continued watching him, picking up her shake and pursing her lips as she sucked through her straw. What Dean wouldn’t give to see those lips wrapped around his … hello! He rolled his eyes and sighed. He hadn’t slept with a woman in who knew how long and here he was faced with a hot chick giving him attitude.

The waitress approached the table.

“Everything okay here, guys?” she asked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Sam said quietly. “Thank you.”

Dean got up to visit the bathroom. Sam followed him.

“Dude, what’s going on with you today?”

“She’s getting on my nerves. I just wanted to shut her up.”

“I’m not saying she wasn’t being a pain in the ass, but, really, Dean? That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you get so riled up over a woman. Who is she, anyway?”

He shrugged. “Dunno. She just showed up at the Curtis house, told Shannon she was with the group.”

“But you don’t think so?”

He shook his head. “She was cock-blocking me, Sam. Every time I tried to ask the lady a question, she kept jumping in with one of her own.”

“So … demon?”

Dean snorted, glancing toward the table where Chloe was now helping herself to some of his fries. “You ever seen a demon eat like that?”

Sam grinned. “Nope.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe goes to investigate the crime scene, only to find Dean and Sam are there before her.

Chloe glanced at the two men yapping in the corner. The shorter one was kind of hot, or he would be, if he didn’t remind her of the psychopath ex-boyfriend of her best friend. Still, she supposed everyone had a double somewhere. 

She grabbed another French fry from the older man’s plate, chewing on it as she contemplated the situation. Shannon Curtis didn’t seem to know who or what had killed her daughter and Chloe hadn’t been able to ask the woman the questions she wanted to ask, especially with ‘Agent Bonham’ there. 

She snorted. Who was the man kidding, anyway? Really? Led Zeppelin?

A man who had once been a friend of hers had introduced her to classic rock. Lex had been a fan of the seventies bands, while her cousin was a huge fan of the eighties hair bands. Between them, Chloe had learned everything she never wanted to know about classic hard rock. John Bonham had been the drummer for the seventies band and according to Lex, was one of the greatest drummers that had ever come out of the music industry. He was to drumming what the likes of Brian May was to rock guitar, according to Lex. Bonham had died long before Chloe was born, due to alcohol poisoning.

As soon as Shannon had introduced him, she knew he was no federal agent. Of course, it begged the question. Who was he really? 

Chloe had already tried researching that, but she hadn’t really had much to go on. She couldn’t get a photo of him, so she couldn’t access any photo recognition software. A search through various sites hadn’t turned up much on men impersonating federal agents. Whoever the guy was, it looked like they had a few friends in high places, or maybe that was low places. 

_Somebody saave me  
Let your warm hands break right through_

Chloe moaned softly as Clark Kent’s i.d. popped up on the screen of her phone. Clark’s idea of a joke had been to download a song from Remy Zero, an alternative rock band which had broken up for a while a few years earlier only to reform. She recalled they had played at the Spring Formal her freshman year of high school. 

She pressed the key to answer the call.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“How’s it going, Chlo?”

“Not good. I’m in Oklahoma.”

“What happened?”

“Girl. Looks like same M.O. as in California.”

“Are they from here?”

“I didn’t have a chance to find out. There’s a guy here. Actually a couple of them.”

The two men were returning to the table, having obviously finished their confab or whatever it was. 

“Listen, I gotta go. I’ll call you when I know more, ‘K?”

“Yeah, okay.” Clark hung up. 

The taller guy, Page or Plant, or whatever the hell his name was, smirked at her.

“Remy Zero?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “A friend’s idea of a joke. I gotta blaze. Thanks for lunch.”

Bonham glared at her. “Now wait just a second …”

Chloe ignored him, getting up from the table, leaving them to pay the waitress. She left the diner quickly, getting into her car. She picked up her laptop from under the right hand seat and opened it, using the small plug-in modem to access the ‘net. 

Simone Curtis had an apartment about two miles from her mother’s home. The building was close to the city centre, but at least a mile from the diner. Chloe accessed the Watchtower computers and used them to get a real-time look at the building. There was still a police unit outside the building. She would have to find an alternate entry, she thought. 

She put her laptop down on the seat next to her and looked up, preparing to start the car. As she did so, she saw the two men leave the diner and get into the Impala, driving off with a roar. Sighing, Chloe started the car and drove off, turning the car around to head down the block to the apartment building.

A short time later, she pulled up about a block away from the apartment building. Just as she’d seen on the satellite image the police car was parked out the front of the building and a patrolman standing at the main entry way. There was no way in hell she was going to be able to get inside through the main doors. 

Getting out of the car, she glanced over at the two cars before heading down the alleyway. There was supposed to be a fire exit around the back. The question was, would the police have thought to guard that as well? 

She rounded the corner and looked around. No cameras that she could see, and no one guarding the back. Okay, this is good, she thought. Chloe quickly located the door and tried the handle.

“Shit!” she murmured. Locked. Damn it! 

Chloe looked around, hoping to find another alternative. The fire escape was too high for her to jump up and pull down the ladder and there was no way she could push the dumpster, which was at least five feet from the fire escape. She couldn’t jump five feet. Unfortunately, she didn’t have Clark’s abilities. 

“There’s gotta be another way in,” she said to herself. 

She couldn’t hang around out here all day. It would look suspicious. She still needed to see the crime scene, compare notes on the one in Star City.

Chloe bit her lip, thinking for a moment of her failed relationship with Oliver Queen. Although, could it be called a relationship since it had fizzled out before it started. He was now shacked up with Dinah Lance. Not that she begrudged him, she supposed. Dinah had become a good friend the past few years. 

She shook her head. This wasn’t the time or the place, she told herself. 

“C’mon Sullivan. You used to be better at this.”

She should have thought to bring a lock pick or something, she thought. 

Just as she decided to go back to her car and try to think of another way in, she had a lucky break in the form of two men coming out the back door. The door itself was clearly controlled by a hydraulic mechanism as it seemed heavy. While the two men were lighting cigarettes, Chloe slipped in the doorway, letting it close behind her, trying not to cough at the acrid odour. 

She started to climb the stairs, being as quiet as possible, not wanting to attract any attention from the tenants in the building. Simone’s apartment was on the fifth floor.

The building was at least a hundred years old and the stairs were fairly rickety. Chloe brushed against the railing as she climbed the staircase to the third floor and it wobbled. It seemed the landlord or the building manager wasn’t keeping up with maintenance. 

Luckily, she got to the fifth floor without incident. Hoping her luck would hold, Chloe made her way to Apartment ten. No cop on the door, but there was police tape across the doorway. Expecting the door to be closed, if not locked, she was surprised to see the door was ajar.

As she pushed it open, a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Startled, Chloe stared into furious green eyes. Not wanting the man to know he had rattled her, she quickly swallowed her fright and glared back at him.

“What do you care?”

“This happens to be a crime scene!” he growled, pulling her through the doorway, dragging her under the police tape. 

The other man was busy looking around the scene, ignoring them, or at least pretending to. Chloe pulled away from ‘Bonham’, wrenching her arm free, wincing at the slight burn on her skin. She looked around. The apartment was a mess.

“Looks like Simone struggled,” the taller man observed.

Chloe had her own theory about that, but kept silent. It was fairly clear that Simone had tried to fight off her attacker. Which meant the thing was stronger than she was. 

‘Bonham’ got in her face, yelling at her.

“What the hell are you trying to do?” he asked. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I could ask you the same question … agent!” 

The younger man rolled his eyes. 

“Dean!”

“What?” the older man asked.

“You’re gonna bring the cops down on us.”

“Don’t want them to know you broke into their crime scene?” Chloe replied snarkily. “So … Dean. Got a last name to go with it?”

Dean glared at her. “Not that I’m going to tell you.”

Chloe huffed and turned away from him. She had been prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, they had eaten lunch together, even if she hadn’t been invited. It seemed, however, he was just as much of a psycho as Lana’s ex-boyfriend, Jason.

“You know, you remind me of someone from a long time ago.”

“Yeah? Let me guess, an ex-boyfriend? Although I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to go out with a shrew.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. Shrew? Oh, that was hitting below the belt.

“Hmph!”

“So what happened to this ex-boyfriend of yours?” the other man asked. She rolled her eyes at him. She still didn’t know his name and couldn’t keep thinking of him as ‘the other guy’. 

“Let me guess. You nagged him one too many times and he took off running for the hills,” Dean replied, smirking.

“No,” she said. “He’s dead. And FYI? He wasn’t my ex. He dated my best friend.”

“Lucky him,” Dean snorted. His partner sighed heavily. 

“What exactly are you implying?” she retorted.

“Guys, come on. Could you quit bickering for five seconds so we can figure out exactly what we’re dealing with?”

Dean glared at the other man. 

“Well no one invited her! She shouldn’t even be here. This is no place for a girl.”

“Meaning what? You think I’m not capable of …”

He didn’t even have to say anything. He just smirked.

“Listen, buddy, I am more than capable of anything you can throw at me. Trust me, where I come from, the weird and unexplained is a daily occurrence.”

“Yeah? Where’s that? Bet it’s some little cow town in the middle of nowhere.”

Again, she wondered exactly what he was implying. The guy was a complete ass and she really didn’t want to deal with this. She ignored him and went into another room, freezing in her tracks as she stared at the wall. There was a symbol drawn on the wall in what appeared to be blood. 

Chloe took out her phone and quickly took a photo, forwarding it to Watchtower computers. Clark would know what to do with it.

“You ever seen anything like that before?” the younger guy was asking Dean.

Chloe didn’t hear Dean’s reply, but she gathered neither of them knew what it was. She thought she might. It reminded her of the symbols in the cave. Whatever this was, it had something to do with Krypton. 

Dean froze. His partner did the same. Chloe started to ask what was going on but the taller guy held up a hand. Cops, he mouthed. 

Shit, Chloe thought. Someone must have heard her arguing with Dean. Why hadn’t she just stuck to her instincts and ignored him? 

Dean snatched her phone and stuck it in his pocket. Chloe glared at him, while his partner went back out to the other room. The older man shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips.

“Officers, everything’s fine here,” she heard the other man saying. “We just needed to check out the scene. For our investigation.”

There was murmuring, then it sounded like the officers left. Dean’s partner returned.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Chloe didn’t have a chance to get her phone back from Dean as he pushed her out the door and along the corridor.

“You get in your car and get the fuck out of here,” Dean told her in a loud whisper. 

“But, I …” 

He gestured angrily. “Go!”

Chloe felt herself propelled toward the back stairs. Dean and his partner went the other way. 

Sighing, she made her way downstairs and ran to her car. Thanks to Dean, she now had no phone, but that was easily fixed. As soon as she was able to get a good signal for the modem, she connected to the ‘net, accessing the GPS on her phone. 

Dean and his friend were at a motel about two blocks from the diner. Chloe quickly figured out how to get there and drove, determined to beat the crap out of the older man. 

Just who the hell did he think he was, anyway? Chloe thought angrily as she negotiated the maze of streets. Did he think he was in some exclusive boys’ club? Did he and his friend have the monopoly on the weird and unexplained? 

Damn them, she growled to herself. She’d been dealing with meteor freaks and people with strange abilities since ninth grade. She was twenty-five, not twelve, and definitely no amateur. 

She would just love to take Dean down a peg or two. Arrogant ass! 

Still, for all his obnoxiousness, he was kind of hot. Well, for a psycho, she said to herself, snorting. 

Chloe pulled up at the motel. Their ‘Vacancy’ sign was switched on and she decided since she needed a place to stay it was as good as any. That way she could keep an eye on the two men as well, make sure they didn’t mess up her investigation. 

Parking her car in the vacant space next to the Impala, she went into the office to get a room. There was no one at the desk but there was a sign telling her to ring the bell. Chloe tapped it. It made a light tinkling sound, certainly not loud enough for anyone in the back room to hear. She tapped it again, harder this time. 

“Why don’t you try throwing it? That’ll get their attention.”

Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes before turning her head to glare at Dean.

“Do you ever shut up?” she asked.

“Nope.” He turned to the vending machine, feeding some notes into the slot. 

Ignoring him, Chloe turned back to the desk, hearing someone come out. An old man with three teeth missing in front and bad body odour. She fought not to gag.

“I’d like a room please,” she said. 

“It’s sixty-five a night. Cash or card?”

“Card,” she told him, taking her credit card from the pocket of her jeans. 

She had taken to just keeping her card and her identification on her when following up on various stories she had been working on. Chloe had learned from experience that it was a lot easier to run when she didn’t have to carry a bag with her. 

She’d spent the last year working for the Star City Sentinel. Her dreams of being a big reporter for the Daily Planet had been shattered when Lex had taken over the big metropolitan newspaper and fired her because she’d tried to keep something from him. Something which his dead father had given her, hoping she would pass it on to Clark. 

Lex had disappeared for almost three years, returning just as Darkseid had come to Earth, planning to plunge the world into darkness. His return had been as mysterious as it had been sudden. Both Clark and Lois had wondered if the Lex who had come back to his birth city was actually a clone of the man, or whether scientists at Cadmus Labs had created clones which were then used as organ donors. 

The only person who might have been able to answer that was dead. 

Around the same time Lex had disappeared, Chloe had been kidnapped by Lex’s people, taken to a facility in Montana where she was subjected to numerous tests and forced to co-operate in helping to find the missing billionaire. When she’d escaped with Clark’s help, Chloe had returned to Metropolis deciding to take up where her best friend Lana Lang had left off; helping the meteor infected. 

When that project had failed, Chloe had accepted an offer from Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow, to become Watchtower. She’d remained at that post for nearly two years, getting involved in a brief fling with the Star City billionaire before deciding she wanted to rejoin the human race and pursue her journalism career once again. She’d applied for the job at the Sentinel, where the editor, who knew of her firing from the Daily Planet, had been no fan of Lex Luthor. 

A month ago, she had heard through one of her contacts that a girl had been brutally stabbed to death. Chloe had learned that the killer had painted some kind of symbol on the wall in the victim’s blood. A symbol exactly like the one painted on the wall of Simone Curtis’ apartment. 

Chloe had dug even deeper and discovered that the victim had once lived in Smallville. Her parents had left a few months after the meteor shower of 1989. 

The motel owner handed her a key and Chloe left the office. As luck would have it, she had been given the room next to the one the two men were staying in. Good, she thought. That makes this easier.

Noting the Impala was still in the parking lot, she grabbed her things, dumping them in the motel room before knocking on the door of the next unit. 

The door was flung open. Dean snorted as he saw who it was.

“I want my phone back,” she said. 

She shoved him backwards and walked inside.

“Think you can just walk in here …” Dean began, but again she ignored him.

“How did you find us?” the partner asked.

She rolled her eyes at him. She seemed to be doing that a lot with them.

“Duh! I have GPS tracking on my phone!”

“Ask a silly question,” the man replied, grinning. 

Dean thrust the phone into her hand.

“There, you’ve got your phone back. Now leave.”

“You know something, Dean, you’re an asshole!”

“Oh, he knows, trust me,” the other man said. “By the way, I’m Sam. So, you’re a reporter, huh?”

Chloe looked at him. He flicked his gaze to the screen of the laptop he had open at the table. She smiled sheepishly at him. Sam smiled back.

Well, at least she wasn’t completely batting zero today, she thought.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean tries to figure Chloe out and learns her theory on the murder

Dean sipped from a bottle of bourbon, watching with narrowed eyes as Chloe and Sam sat together at the table, heads bent over the laptop. He did not like this one bit. No sirree. Chloe had just waltzed in and pretty much nosed in where she wasn’t wanted. 

He let his gaze drop slowly over her form. Nice ass, he thought. Hell, if he had to admit it, even if it was just to himself, she wasn’t that bad looking as chicks went. Pity about her personality.

He snorted at his own joke. Chloe must have heard it as she turned her head to look at him, frowning as she took in the direction of his gaze, then shifted in her seat. 

Dean figured he’d better at least pretend to be interested in the conversation.

“So, you’re saying this case in California and this one are connected?”

Chloe nodded in response to Sam’s question, showing him something on her phone. Dean had already looked at the phone, although he hadn’t been able to make much sense of it. It was clearly top-of-the-line and damned expensive. He and Sam had had to pick up some cheap used crap, since they weren’t exactly rolling in cash. 

“So what’s your theory?” Sam asked Chloe.

“Well, I could tell you, but I’m not sure you’d believe me.”

“Try me,” his brother replied.

Dean snorted again, sipping the bourbon. Chloe turned her head and looked at him.

“Something on your mind? Dean?”

“No,” he snapped. He glared at his brother. “What is she still doing here?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “I figured we could pool our information together, maybe come up with a way to figure out what we’re dealing with here.”

Annoyed, Dean sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I’m goin’ out.”

“Do what you want, Dean. No one’s stopping you.”

Chloe kept staring at him, her eyes narrowed. It was a little disconcerting, the way she kept looking at him. Like he had two heads or something. 

Feeling more than a little uncomfortable with the staring match, Dean got up, grabbing his phone and his key, leaving the two of them alone in the room. 

On his way to the motel earlier, Dean had noticed a bar about a block and a half from the motel. He stood in the parking lot, debating whether to take Baby, but decided against it. The last thing he wanted was to get caught driving drunk. Not that he hadn’t before, but the last time he had, Sam had never let him hear the end of it. 

He entered the bar and sat on a stool, waiting for the bartender to notice and approach him. The bar wasn’t that busy. Only a few people were actually drinking. A couple was in the corner, talking quietly. 

An attractive blonde approached him with a smile.

“What can I get you?” she asked.

Dean looked her up and down, taking in the slim figure in the hip-hugging jeans, the white shirt with the ends tied in a knot below firm, double D breasts. Normally Dean would be all over it like a cheap suit, but he inexplicably found himself comparing the chick in front of him to the woman he’d left behind in the motel. 

Well, that wasn’t weird at all, he thought. 

The bartender frowned at him, clearly wondering why he was hesitating and he placed a bill on the bar, ordering himself a beer chaser. 

“Bad day?” the woman asked as she served him his drink.

“The worst,” he muttered. 

She shrugged. “Tell me about it.”

“No thanks,” he said, again missing the opportunity to flirt. The woman was hot, but somehow he just wasn’t in the mood. He had a feeling he knew why. Damn chick, nosing into things that didn’t concern her. 

He was nursing his third drink when it felt like the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. His head snapped around to stare at the door and he scowled. Sam had come in with Chloe.

“Figured you’d be here,” his brother said, sitting on the stool beside him.

“Yeah, what a surprise,” Chloe put in snarkily.

“Lady, you don’t know anything about me,” he growled.

“I know enough,” she returned. 

The bartender approached them, asking for their order.

“You got coffee?” Chloe asked.

Dean frowned. When she’d been talking to Shannon Curtis, she’d told the woman she didn’t drink coffee, or use stimulants. Or wait, she’d said she ‘tried never to drink coffee’. 

“Coffee?”

Chloe looked at him, then her eyes widened. She’d clearly forgotten. 

“It’s called a cover, Dean. Something I’m sure you know a lot about.”

“Yeah right.”

“The Wicca group Simone belonged to is against stimulants of any kind. Something you would know if you actually did your homework. I couldn’t exactly tell a grieving mother I’m a journalist, now could I?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever lady.” He finished his beer, rising to his feet, wanting to be anywhere but near her. She was driving him crazy with whatever scent she was wearing. 

Chloe glared at him. “Running away, Winchester?”

He turned his glare on his brother, who just shrugged. 

“Like I said, I figured it would be better if we pooled our information.”

Chloe took the coffee the bartender gave her and drank it, scowling. Clearly it wasn’t what she’d expected. Dean looked at her questioningly. 

“I used to get better coffee from the kiosk below Watchtower,” she said.

“Watchtower?” Sam asked, a bottle of beer in hand. 

“Where I used to work. I now work in Star City. For the Sentinel.”

“So where is this Watchtower?” Dean asked, trying to make it sound casual.

“Metropolis. Kansas.” She seemed to add that last bit as a qualifier.

“I know where Metropolis is!” he growled. 

“So, uh, Chloe was telling me there could be a connection between the two cases. Other than the cause of death, that is,” Sam said.

“And I’m interested why?” Dean returned. Sam frowned at him, kicking the stool just hard enough to shift it. 

“Well, we don’t know for sure,” Chloe replied. “I didn’t get the chance to ask Shannon.”

“Ask her what?”

“Whether her family lived in Smallville,” Chloe told him.

“Smallville?”

“Yeah, you know. Creamed corn capital of the world,” she quoted, rolling her eyes. “Or at least it was, until the meteors hit.”

Sam grinned, clearly getting his Mulder on. “Get this. There were two meteor showers, one in 1989 and another one in 2005. And some of the residents began to exhibit certain abilities.”

“Abilities?” Dean asked, interested in spite of his dislike for the blonde.

“Like shape-shifting, for one. Telekinesis, for another. Oh, and there were these two guys who were salesmen - not very good ones anyway, before the meteor shower in ’89. Well, then they got, well, I guess you could call it the power of persuasion. They could compel anyone to do anything just with a touch of the hand.”

Sam commented this was not the place to continue the discussion when the bar began to fill up with more people and suggested going back to their room. It was obviously quitting time for most of the folks around as a good number of them came in wearing what looked to Dean to be ‘work clothes’. He reluctantly followed his brother back to the motel, thinking over what he’d already heard that evening.

Sam ordered them something to eat and they waited for the food to arrive, discussing the case. Dean still didn’t like the fact that Chloe had somehow nosed in on their case, but wasn’t about to object. He had a feeling she would tell him to stick it where the sun didn’t shine anyway. 

He ate his sweet ‘n sour pork and rice in silence, glaring at Chloe, who seemed not to notice. Or if she did notice, she was ignoring it. Finally, the discussion returned to the subject of the meteors. 

“So, you suggesting this Simone chick …”

Chloe bristled visibly at the ‘chick’ comment. She looked at him coolly. 

“I don’t know. They’re not on my Wall of Weird.”

Dean raised an eyebrow at her and looked at his brother, confused.

“Wall of Weird?”

Chloe shrugged. “When I was in high school, I compiled a collection of all the strange things that happened in Smallville. I called it my Wall of Weird. It evolved into a database of people affected by the meteors.”

“What’s so unusual about these meteors?” Dean asked. 

“Well, they’re actually not meteors, technically,” Chloe explained. “They’re pieces of Krypton.”

“Krypton?” Sam looked puzzled. “You mean the element?”

“No. I mean Krypton, the planet,” Chloe told them. “As in Superman.”

Dean frowned. “You know this for a fact?”

“Considering I know Superman and I’m a member of the Justice League.”

He didn’t get it. What the heck did a girl’s murder by what was potentially a demon have to do with Superman? Chloe sighed when he asked.

“I don’t think this is a demon,” she said. “That’s why I need to confirm if this girl was from Smallville.”

“Why?” Sam asked. “Do you think she had a meteor power?”

“It’s possible. It’s also possible that whatever’s doing the killing is a wraith.”

“A what now?”

“Aren’t wraiths just ghostlike images of the dead? They’re not actually spirits, they’re echoes. They can’t really do anything,” Sam commented.

“Not like these,” Chloe replied. “The wraith I’m talking about is what’s left after the corporeal body is ripped from them.”

Dean grimaced. Yeah, that sounded pleasant. Not.

“I’m not following,” Sam said.

“Superman’s people punished criminals on his homeworld by ripping the spirits from the corporeal bodies and exiling them to a place called the Phantom Zone. It’s basically an inter-dimensional prison.”

“Okay, so how did this wraith escape from the prison?” Dean asked.

“Well, that we’re not sure of. See, a few years ago, Superman - before he became Superman, that is, was trapped in the Phantom Zone by an enemy of his father. He managed to get out but not without letting a few of these criminals out.”

“Years? Are you saying this thing’s been around for years?” Sam asked, looking incredulous.

“We don’t know. C … Kal’s been to the Zone a couple more times since then. Look, it’s a long story and I don’t really want to get into it. Most of it’s all pretty much hypothetical anyway.”

“Okay, so let’s say this thing is a wraith from this Phantom Zone. Why would it go after these meteor freaks?” Dean asked.

Chloe frowned. “Yeah, it’s not PC to call them freaks.”

“Fine. Whatever!”

“Maybe it’s looking for a way to kill Superman. I don’t know. Like I said, it’s all hypothetical.”

Sure, Dean thought later as Chloe left later that night. Hypothetical. They’d discussed the case but none of them could really come up with some definitive answers. Dean’s money was still on it being a demon, having targeted the girl due to her ties with Wicca. 

He couldn’t help feeling that he had offended Chloe somehow. She had clearly been making an effort to be civil; helpful even. Still, he could tell that bubbling beneath the surface was this sense of hostility from her. She didn’t trust him, yet she seemed to trust Sam implicitly. He wanted to know why. 

“What’s with that chick anyway?” he muttered. 

Sam looked at him as he sat on the twin bed. 

“What?”

“Why does she seem to like you and not me?” he asked.

“Jealous?” Sam said, grinning.

“No!” he denied quickly.

“Whatever!” Sam started to pull back the covers on his bed. “Look, if it bothers you that much, just ask her.”

“You know something Sammy?”

His brother looked reluctant.

“Spill,” Dean told him.

“You look like someone she used to know. Like almost a perfect copy.”

Dean frowned. “What? An ex-boyfriend or something?”

“A psycho. He tried to kill her best friend’s parents.”

Whoa!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe has insomnia. She and Dean begin to find some common ground.

Chloe was finding sleep elusive. It wasn’t just the fact that the motel room had a crappy bed with a too hard mattress. She couldn’t stop thinking about the elder Winchester. Why did the man have to look like the identical twin of someone she used to know?

Jason Teague. Now there was a name she hadn’t thought about since the day the meteors struck Smallville. For the second time that was. Clark had told her how Jason had gone to the farmhouse searching for him. Something to do with the crystals which formed the Fortress of Solitude. The former Smallville High assistant coach had threatened Clark’s parents with a shotgun until they told him where the crystals were. 

A meteor had hit the farmhouse before Jason could do any worse to them and the man had died instantly. 

It just didn’t seem possible that the two men were so alike in looks, despite them being completely different natures. Where she had initially liked Jason and thought him cute and funny, Dean Winchester was abrasive and rude. 

And hot, she told herself. Don’t forget hot. There was something about the rugged looks that she found very attractive. 

She sighed and rolled over, punching her pillow as if that would help her get rid of the thoughts whirling around in her head. 

An hour later and she was still tossing and turning. With an annoyed growl, Chloe got up, figuring if she wasn’t going to sleep, she might as well start trying to unravel the mystery. She was used to working long hours, but not without a good, strong cup of Java. The trouble was, the motel didn’t supply coffee. 

She grabbed her keys and her phone, quickly searching for the closest place which was still open before getting in her car and driving out of the parking lot. The all-night diner was less than a mile down the road and she was back within ten minutes. As she unlocked the door to her room, another door opened.

Dean Winchester stood on the doorstep, arms folded, watching her. 

“Kind of late for a coffee run,” he observed. 

“Yeah,” she said. 

He appeared surprised at her mild tone, raising an eyebrow. He glanced inside his own room, then shut the door. 

“Burning the midnight oil?” he asked.

“Something like that,” she replied, turning the doorknob and opening the door. Dean followed her inside. She frowned at him. “I don’t seem to recall issuing an invitation.”

He shrugged. “Sam told me about your … about the guy who looks like me.”

“Looked. He’s dead.”

“Yeah, got that. What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” she said. 

“What … happened?” he repeated.

She sighed. Clearly Dean wasn’t going to leave it alone. She put her coffee down on the rickety table then began to tell the story. The hunter listened quietly, interjecting occasionally to ask a question but otherwise didn’t comment. 

“The thing was, at first he seemed like a really nice guy. He was dating Lana, my best friend. Then he just changed.”

“Sorry you had to deal with that. But I’m not him.”

“You look like him. I mean, your hair’s a little darker but if the two of you were side by side, I wouldn’t be able to tell you apart. Well, except that you’re a lot older than he …” She frowned. “I’m not really sure how old he was. He was in college, I remember that much.”

“A few years ago, we were investigating a case in St Louis. A friend of Sam’s was arrested for murder. Turns out it was a shapeshifter. Real mean son-of-a-bitch. He took my form and damn near got us, me and Sam, killed.”

“Sam told me you guys have been doing this most of your lives. Seems like a pretty lonely life.”

Dean shrugged. “Pretty much no other choice. Someone has to step up. Might as well be us.”

“Don’t you ever think about settling down?”

He shook his head. “I tried that once. Apple pie, station wagon … it didn’t take.” He looked at her. “You seem like a pretty together chick. Why haven’t you?”

She shrugged. “There was this guy. Oliver. We tried for a couple of months but, like you said, it didn’t take. He still had feelings for my cousin and I didn’t want to be rebound girl.”

Dean grimaced. “Ouch!”

“My cousin and my best friend are married now. Oliver, well, I think he started seeing this other woman. Dinah. I’m happy for him, I guess, but sometimes …”

“You can’t help thinking what if. Yeah, I still think about Lisa sometimes. She doesn’t remember me at all now. Kind of a long story. So, uh, what’s the plan with this case?”

“I was going to hook into Watchtower computers and see if I could dig up anything more on Simone Curtis.”

“Wall of Weird?”

She nodded. “If she did come from Smallville, and she was exposed to the meteors, it might explain a lot. Especially with what was painted on the wall.”

Dean frowned. “What about the wall?”

“Superman would be able to confirm it, but I’ve seen enough Kryptonian to know one of their symbols when I come across it. That’s why I’m fairly sure this was a Zoner. But I won’t know more until I hear back.”

Dean grabbed the chair from the table and swung it around, sitting so his front was facing the back of the chair. His message was fairly clear. Chloe opened up her laptop and accessed the network. Watchtower systems had access to almost every news media in the country. She figured if she could get into the digital files of the Smallville Ledger, she might see something. 

That was if their digital files went back as far as 1989, she thought. Before she had left the Daily Planet, they had been digitising their archives and it was a huge job. 

Her own files which she had compiled back in high school hadn’t provided any insight. Either she hadn’t known of Simone or the family had moved long before she had moved to Smallville with her father.

Dean watched her fingers fly over the keyboard. He looked curious but a small smile played over his lips as if he was trying to think of something smart to say.

“You gonna sit there and stare at me all night?” she asked. “Why don’t you go back to your room. This could take a while.”

Dean smirked. “This bother you?”

“You bother me,” she returned.

It reminded her of the many times Clark would super-speed into the Planet and expect her to drop everything to help him out with whatever his crisis of the week was. It could be annoying at times. He often stood behind her shoulder, watching as she worked, as if he expected everything to happen at super speed. 

Not that she was bitter or anything. She had never envied Clark his abilities, knowing there was that much more pressure on him to use them to help people. Ever since Superman had emerged from the shadows, the demands on Clark had increased tenfold. It was as if people no longer knew how to sort out their own problems. Superman was more than a saviour to them. He was their confidante, their psychiatrist. 

Lois often complained that Clark was late for dates and she always had to cover for him at the Planet. There were only so many library books he suddenly felt a need to return. 

No, Chloe didn’t envy Clark. She’d got her own little taste of what it was like to have a strange ability and that had been more than enough for her. Especially when that ability meant she took on whatever injury the person she was healing had. Twice it had resulted in her not having a pulse for several hours. 

She still wondered why it had taken her so long to learn she had the ability. Unless the power had been a latent one. Yet her mother had been able to use that ability to control her even when she was a child. Surely, she thought, if I had the ability to heal, wouldn’t I have been able to heal my broken arm when I fell out of the window of the Luthor mansion? 

The power had disappeared a year after she had discovered it. That didn’t make sense either, Chloe thought. Unless being taken over by Brainiac had basically cancelled it out. For some reason, her Krypto-ability had affected the Brain Interactive Construct but had also allowed it to take over her mind. 

“Hello? Earth to Chloe!”

She looked up, frowning at Dean. “What?”

“You spaced out for a few minutes there.”

“I was just … thinking. I wonder what Simone’s ability was.”

“You still think she had one?”

“Well, if I was to guess, if we really are looking for a wraith from the Phantom Zone, it’s looking for a body it can inhabit. But the thing about some of these wraiths is that the human body can’t handle it. Or rather, can’t handle the abilities. There was this one Zoner. It took over several humans until it found Cl … uh, Superman.”

“You said Cl … that’s the second time. Do you know who Superman is?”

“I can’t …”

Dean shrugged. “Who’re we gonna tell? I mean, apart from Cas.”

“Cas?”

“He’s an angel.”

Chloe nodded, humouring him. “Right.”

“No, really, he is. Well, he was. I don’t know what he is right now. He’s in Purgatory.”

O-kay, she thought. “I’m guessing that’s another long story which I won’t get to hear.”

Dean smirked. “Something like that. Anyway, like I said, it’s not as if we’re going to tell anybody. Nobody would believe us.”

“I guess that’s true. Superman is …”

The door to her room opened with a bang. Chloe stared as a form appeared in the doorway. Dean looked around, his eyes widening as he identified the visitor. 

“Chloe.”

“Superman?” Dean continued to stare. Clark ignored him. 

“I saw the symbol,” Clark told her. “It’s Kryptonian.”

“Is it what I suspected? A Zoner?”

Clark nodded. “It looks like it. I just can’t tell when it escaped.” He finally looked at Dean. “Who are you?”

“Dean Winchester.” Dean reached out a hand but Clark turned back to Chloe.

“He looks like Jason,” he said.

“Been there, done that,” Chloe replied with a sigh. “He’s not, though. Dean and his brother are hunters.”

“Yeah, we hunt down demons and, you know, things that go bump in the night.” He smirked at Chloe as he said it and she rolled her eyes. 

“Lois got a call from Oliver. He was looking into the girl killed in California. It looks like there was another one.”

“Where?”

Clark shot her a look. Chloe sighed. “Smallville. Figures.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long to update. Have been working on personal projects. Personally, I hate leaving anything unfinished and I will try not to take so long to update again, but I can't promise anything. My personal projects have taken most of my focus the last few months.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Sam continue the investigation while Chloe leaves for Smallville

Dean wanted to ask about Smallville but clearly Chloe wasn’t in the mood. Nor was Superman. He still thought it was weird, seeing a real live alien. Hell, he’d seen this movie.   
Chloe was biting her lip, clearly torn between trying to investigate Simone Curtis and going to Smallville. Dean decided to be helpful for once.

“Look, why don’t you head on up to Smallville and Sam and I will go talk to Shannon,” he suggested.

Superman looked at him, then at Chloe. “It’s a good idea,” he said. 

The blonde looked dubious. “I don’t know,” she said. “Can I trust that you’ll pass on any information you get from her?”

“Since you’ll probably kick my ass if I don’t, yeah, you can trust me.”

“I’ll make sure he does,” Sam said behind his brother. He looked sleepy-eyed, deep, dark circles under his eyes. Chloe looked apologetic.

“Guess we woke you,” she said.

Sam shrugged. “I’m pretty much used to it. But the situation’s not going to change in the next, oh, two or three hours,” he said, checking Chloe’s phone for the time. “We all need to get some shut-eye.” He shot Dean a meaningful look. 

“Uh, yeah,” he said. 

Superman nodded. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Mr Winchester.”

Sam shook his head. “It’s fine, uh, Superman.”

Dean wanted to ask why it was so important that the alien superhero fly from Kansas to Oklahoma in the middle of the night or who Lois was and how she fit into all this but Chloe just looked at him and minutely shook her head. It wasn’t the right time or the right place. 

Dean followed Sam back to their room, leaving Chloe and her friend alone. A few minutes later he heard the door to her room close. He assumed that since complete silence followed, Superman had flown back to Metropolis, or wherever it was he bunked down when he wasn’t out helping people. 

He managed to sleep for a couple of hours before getting up again and heading out to grab something for breakfast. As a peace offering, he decided to buy Chloe some breakfast as well, knocking on the door of her room. She emerged looking sleepy-eyed. Dean held up the bag.

“I bought you some breakfast,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Uh, thanks.”

“Yeah, well, you know. Figured you’ve got a long drive ahead of you and you could use the energy. Why don’t you come over in a couple of minutes,” he suggested.

She sent him an odd look, obviously wondering why he was being so nice all of a sudden. Dean didn’t comment, unlocking the door to his and Sam’s room. His brother was up and the bathroom door was closed. 

Dean put the tray of coffee cups down on the rickety table, then set out the takeout containers he’d been given from the local diner. The bathroom door opened and Sam came out, his hair wet. 

“Breakfast,” Dean told him. 

Sam looked, raising an eyebrow at the three containers. He didn’t comment, instead opening the door to Chloe’s knock. She looked a little more awake. 

“Coffee,” she said with a sigh. 

Dean smirked at her. “How did you expect to be so convincing with Shannon Curtis when your eyes practically bug out of your head at the smell of coffee?”

She scowled at him. “I can pretend!” She picked up the cup and took a sip, giving what sounded to Dean like a blissful sigh. 

Sam nudged him before he could say something else smart-assed. “Ignore him. The man runs at the sight of anything green in his food.”

“Do not!” Dean told him.

Chloe grinned at Sam, her eyes sparkling with mischief. Dean felt an irrational jealousy toward his brother at the looks between them. It seemed that Chloe and Sam had made some kind of connection yet he was still batting zero with her. 

They sat down and began eating the breakfast – scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and fried tomatoes. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Sam asked.

“I’m going to Smallville to investigate this next one,” Chloe told him. Dean was reminded that Sam had only come in on the tail end of the conversation with Superman the night before. “My friend and my cousin will meet me there.”

“We’ll head back to see Mrs Curtis and ask her about Smallville. See if we can’t find out a bit more information about Simone,” Dean said quietly. Chloe shot him a look which he couldn’t interpret but he guessed it had something to do with his attitude adjustment. 

He had no idea how they were going to broach the subject with the dead woman’s mother about any kind of powers Simone had had. If he was right, it would be a very sensitive subject. Then again, they should be used to asking such unusual questions, given that they’d been dealing with the supernatural for years. 

He had lost count of all the times people would look at them oddly when they’d had to ask if there had been anything strange or unusual happening at the time a person had died. Most of the general population had no idea monsters were real. Either that or they pretended not to notice. 

Chloe had told them it was pretty much the same in Smallville, where she had lived for about eleven years. Most of the town’s population tended to pretend they didn’t know about the meteor rocks and what they did to people. It was often a case of out of sight, out of mind. As long as the meta-humans, as she called them, didn’t do anything to hurt anyone, or at least, those who didn’t deserve it, they didn’t care. 

That was one of the reasons she had been treated like an outsider at school. From the moment she and her father had moved to the town, she had begun investigating the problem. Since her father had worked for Luthorcorp, as it had then been known, at the Smallville fertiliser plant, she had wondered if the plant had truly been to blame for the mutant cows or all the other weird occurrences. Smallville, being protective of its own, preferred to keep those things under the radar. 

With breakfast over, Chloe left for Smallville while Dean drove Baby to the Curtis house. Sam glanced at him as he pulled up.

“You’re awful quiet,” he said. 

“What’s your point?”

“You’ve been that way since last night. Since you sat with Chloe for a couple hours. You like her or something?”

“For a chick, she’s got balls,” was all he would reply. 

Sam scowled. “Chloe’s a nice woman.”

“And?”

“I know what you’re like with them, Dean. It’s all wham, bam, thank you ma’am.”

“I’m not looking to do the horizontal hula with Chloe,” he said, mentally crossing his fingers. He couldn’t say he hadn’t thought about it. She was cute. Plus he found her sass kind of hot. She was the kind of girl he figured he could take on a hunt with him and she wouldn’t be afraid to do the hard yards. 

Shannon Curtis came out onto the front porch as they walked up the path, wearing their Fed suits. 

“Agent Bonham?” she said. 

Dean nodded. “Yes ma’am. This is my partner, Agent Page. We just need to ask you a few more questions.”

She shrugged and led them inside, waiting for them to sit down on the couch.

“I told you everything I know. I just need to know who killed my baby.”

“Mrs Curtis, how long have you lived here?” Sam asked politely.

“About twenty years, give or take.”

“Why did you move here?” Dean’s question felt a little abrupt and it appeared to put her on the defensive.

“What does that have to do with what happened to my daughter?” she asked. 

“Please just answer the question,” Sam said.

“We moved because of Simone. She, uh, she got sick.”

“Sick? In what way?” Sam’s tone still remained even as if he was trying not to upset her. 

“Um, I really don’t want to … I just want to put all that behind me.”

“All what, Mrs Curtis? What are you not telling us?” Dean asked. She stared at him. 

“No, no, forget I said anything!”

“We can’t, Mrs Curtis. Especially if it may have some bearing on what happened to your daughter.”

“She could … she could do things. With her mind. We took her to all these doctors but they tried to tell us we were imagining it.”

“When did this start, Mrs Curtis?” Sam asked cautiously.

“When she was little. Not long after the meteor shower.”

“What meteor shower?” Dean asked, pretending he knew nothing about it. He’d only been ten at the time so probably wouldn’t have noticed any news stories about it. He doubted his father would have paid attention to it unless it had anything to do with monsters.

“In Smallville,” Shannon replied hoarsely. 

She went on to explain that she and Simone’s father had gone out to the Homecoming game while Simone’s grandmother had stayed to babysit. They were on their way home when the meteors hit. Simone had apparently been in the backyard, playing on the swings, when a meteor the size of a football hit the ground. The swing set had fallen over with the impact, pinning her to the ground. 

“Next thing I knew she was up and running into the house. Her clothes were all torn and dirty and they had this weird green dust all over them.”

A few months later, Simone had begun exhibiting strange abilities. Her parents had taken her to see a doctor, then another one, but neither specialist had been able to figure it out. Shannon and her husband had begun fighting and Shannon had decided to move to Oklahoma to be closer to her mother while her husband had stayed behind. He had a job at the fertiliser plant and was earning reasonably good money. 

Dean was reluctant to tell the woman there had been another killing. They left the woman’s house.

“Sure looks like this proves Chloe’s theory,” Sam said.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Come on, Dean, how much more do you need? The first victim was from Smallville, the second victim was the same. Now there’s been a third one. In Smallville.”

“I still don’t think this is what they’re thinking.”

“So what is it, then, if it’s not … what did she call it? A Zoner?”

“I don’t know,” Dean said with a sigh. The only thing they could do was go check out the third victim and talk to Superman. If the symbols left at each scene were Kryptonian, only he would have the answers.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe arrives in Smallville to investigate the new victim.

“Clark?” Chloe called out as she entered the farmhouse. Clark and Lois usually lived in an apartment in Metropolis but still kept the farm. They had been about to sell it the day Darkseid had tried to take over Earth but the buyer had backed out at the last minute. Martha had been upset at the thought of selling the farm so they had not bothered trying for another buyer.

“Chloe?”

She grinned at her cousin as Lois came down the stairs. 

“Hey Lo.”

“How was the drive from Oklahoma?”

She shrugged. She had always hated long drives but she wasn’t going to ask Clark to super speed her anywhere. 

Clark practically bounded down the stairs, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. It was obvious from the way his hair was damp that he’d only just got out of the shower.

“Sorry,” he said, noticing her gaze. “We overslept.”

She hid a smirk. She’d once heard a story from Clark’s adoptive father that Clark had slept in until almost noon the winter he was twelve. It had become a regular occurrence and Jonathan Kent had never stopped teasing his son about it.

Clark had once asked his birth father, Jor-El, if his powers had had anything to do with it, since he’d been going through puberty at that time. The avatar of the Kryptonian had intimated that because Clark’s powers came from the star Sol, otherwise known as the sun, his body couldn’t regenerate as quickly during the winter months. That winter had been particularly harsh with mostly grey skies. 

Lois began fiddling with the coffee pot. She looked up at her cousin.

“So, uh, I hear there’s a cute guy involved in the case?”

Chloe found herself blushing. Something she hadn’t done since Clark had caught her in Watchtower making out with Oliver. 

“Uh, maybe,” she said. 

“Don’t ‘maybe’ me, cuz. Spill.”

She raised an eyebrow at her brunette cousin. She loved Lois dearly. They’d always been very close. But still, she had to be able to keep some things to herself.

“Is nothing sacred?” she asked.

Lois stared back at her. “Hello? Do you not know me? Now give over.”

“Honey …” Clark began but quickly backed off at her glare.

“Butt out, Smallville. I’m just trying to make sure this guy’s not an axe murderer or something. I mean, you did say he looked like that coach that tried to kill Lex and your parents that one time.”

“I told you. He’s not Jason. I mean, yeah, there’s a close resemblance, but …”

“I think Chloe’s smart enough to make that judgment call herself,” Clark interjected. “Besides, he didn’t seem that bad to me.”

Lois snorted. “Yeah, but you’d believe in the tooth fairy, Smallville.”

Chloe waved her hands. “Uh, can we focus, people? Forget about Dean Winchester, okay? Tell me what’s going on!”

“They found a body at LexCorp,” Clark told her. “At the fertiliser plant.”

“Yeah, and the bald Prince of Darkness figured out the symbol painted on the wall had some connection to Superman!”

“Let me guess. One of his lab rats?” Chloe asked, ignoring her cousin’s penchant for giving Clark’s former friend-turned-enemy various nicknames. She wondered what Lois would say if she knew that the Winchester brothers had meet the real Prince of Darkness. Or that Lucifer was stuck in a cage in Hell. At least, that was what Sam had told her. 

Chloe frowned. “So how did Oliver know about this one?”

“Lex heard about the one in California and thought there was a connection.” Lois shrugged. “No idea why he didn’t just come straight to us, but who knows how that man thinks.”

“Anyway, Lex is going to let us look into it,” Clark said.

Chloe frowned at Clark. “Uh, why? I thought he hated you?”

After Darkseid, they’d learned that Lex had somehow lost his memory. It had taken some digging but they had eventually discovered that Lex’s half-sister, Tess, had visited Summerholt Neurological Institute and had stolen a neuro-toxin, which they assumed she had used on the bald man before he’d killed her. Not that they could prove that, either, she thought, since all the surveillance feeds had been damaged when the planet known as Apokolips had entered the exosphere. Its magnetic field had caused interruptions in a lot of electronic equipment. 

It had been about a year since that had happened. Lex had done his best to hide the fact that he had total amnesia, telling the reporters at the press conference announcing his return that he’d been in an accident three years earlier. God only knew how he’d managed to figure it all out. The billionaire heir to Luthorcorp had been very skilled at hiding evidence of his various schemes. 

At first, he’d appeared to show no interest in Clark or the Daily Planet, despite their earlier acquaintance. Until the stories about Superman began appearing in the newspaper. He’d called Clark to his office and talked to him as if trying to renew their friendship. Clark had at least learned a few lessons in how to maintain a poker face from his wife and he’d soon realised that Lex was only interested in what Clark knew about Superman. 

When Clark had refused to take the bait, Lex had shown his true colours. Their communication had been restricted to requests for interviews, which Lex declined. 

Clark and Lois went back upstairs to change their clothes. Clark was first, probably having changed at superspeed. He was wearing black pants and a crisp sky blue shirt, with a contrasting tie. 

Chloe had used the opportunity to briefly wash and refresh her make-up in the downstairs bathroom, changing out of her jeans and to a tailored skirt and blouse. The blouse was cut so there was nothing revealing. She might have briefly harboured a mini-crush on the man once upon a time, but she wasn’t about to give him an eyeful. Not that Clark or Lois actually knew about her infatuation. It had been the summer she had been in witness protection. Lex had visited her a few times and she had thought she had seen a different side to him. What a shame he had turned out more manipulative than Lionel had ever been, she thought.

Lois came downstairs, dressed in tailored grey pants and a dark green silk blouse. She wore the locket Martha had given her shortly after she and Clark had got engaged. It was a family heirloom, passed down by Clark’s grandmother. 

“All right, let’s get going,” she said.

Her phone rang as she walked out to her car.

“Hey Chloe, it’s Sam. We’re on our way to Smallville.”

“Did you manage to talk to Shannon?”

“Yeah. You were right. She lived in Smallville but left a few months after the meteor shower. Simone did have a power. Sounds to me like it was telekinesis.”

“Great. Thanks.” She looked up at Clark, who was waiting by the truck. “It’s confirmed. Simone Curtis was one of the meteor-infected.”

Lois looked at her husband. “So, definitely a Zoner?”

“We don’t really know that for sure.”

“What else could it be?” she said with a shrug.

“Let’s just get to the plant and see what Lex has to say,” Chloe replied. 

The guard at the gate let them in without hesitation, saying they were expected. Chloe knew the layout of the plant fairly well, having spent a few lazy summer afternoons there helping out her father. Before he’d been fired, anyway.

Another guard escorted them through the plant to the lower level. Chloe still remembered the day a man had taken them all hostage demanding help for the meteor infection that was killing him. He’d become belligerent when Lex had told him there was no Level Three, as he was claiming, although Lex hadn’t known of its existence. 

There was no such attempt to hide Level Three now, which had been used for many experiments using meteor rock, or rather, Kryptonite. 

Clark looked a little uneasy and she wondered if the scientists had left out any stores of Kryptonite. Lex would have hidden it away behind lead shielding, knowing Superman regularly checked his labs. 

There was little opportunity to comment on it as Lex, who’d been talking to a foreman, looked up and came over.

“Mr Kent, Ms Lane.” He paused, his expression unreadable. “Ms Sullivan.”

His tone was at least polite but Chloe caught the note of disdain. The last time she had had anything to do with Lex Luthor, he had fired her from the Daily Planet.   
He proceeded to lead them to the area where the symbol had been left.

“I ordered the security team to leave it as it was,” Lex said. 

“What can you tell us about the victim?” Clark asked.

Lex regarded him cautiously before answering. “We believe she was meteor-infected.”

“She?” Chloe frowned. Every victim was female. Did that mean the Zoner was female? It was the only reason she could figure. 

Lex looked at her coolly. “Is there something you want to say, Ms Sullivan?”

She tried not to bristle at his tone. The way he spoke it sounded like he was trying to be professional but she caught the slight sneer in his expression, swiftly hidden. 

“This is the third one so far,” she said. “And all of them have been women.”

“What was her meteor ability?” Clark asked. 

“We don’t exactly know. She was working here as a lab assistant. She was quiet, unassuming. Her co-workers reported that there were times when they barely noticed her.”

“So how do you know she was meteor-infected?” Lois asked.

“Her medical records when she was hired on indicated she was injured in the meteor shower in 2005.”

“That still doesn’t mean she was meteor-infected,” Clark argued quietly. Lex shot him a look which Chloe couldn’t interpret.

“As part of her work, she was required to take drug screens. While my team didn’t notice any drugs her bloodwork did pick up something unusual.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes at the man. He was carefully trying to skirt around his various projects. He might not remember them, but the projects still existed on paper. Was he really trying to avoid the fact that this girl had probably been part of his 33.1 project?

“I don’t know what you’re expecting to find, Ms Sullivan,” Lex told her. She started, so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t been aware he had moved to stand right next to her. “According to my HR manager, she was hired three years ago.”

Long after 33.1 was apparently abandoned, she thought. Oliver had merged Queen Industries with Luthorcorp and he would never have allowed such projects to continue.   
Lex, after his return and the subsequent reformation of the company as LexCorp, had been eager to present a respectable face to the world. Would he really have let matters lie or would he have secretly resumed his experimentation on the meteor-infected?

“Is there any security footage of the attack on the woman?” Clark asked. 

Lex nodded. “I thought you might ask that. I’ve already asked my security team to provide you with the footage. I warn you. It’s extremely unpleasant.”

He wasn’t wrong, she thought as they went through the surveillance on the laptop at the farm. It was linked to the server at Watchtower, as well as the external server, which Chloe had specifically requested in case there was ever another incident within Watchtower itself. 

“What’s that?” Lois asked as they looked over the footage for about the fifth time. “Some kind of shadow?”

Clark shook his head. “I think it must be the Zoner.”

Chloe bit her lip. The Zoner had to be a phantom, its spirit or whatever ripped out of its corporeal body. She wondered if it was actually looking for a body that could sustain it. Clark nodded when she voiced it.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.”

Lois frowned. “The Phantom Zone’s gone, right? So when did this thing come to Earth?”

“That’s what we were thinking.”

Chloe looked around. Sam and Dean stood in the doorway. Clark stared at them. 

“Uh …”

“Guess you’re Clark, and you must be Lois.”

Lois got up, quickly covering for her husband before he could blurt out that he already knew who they were. “That’s me. Lois Lane, Daily Planet. I’m guessing you’re Dean.” She turned and smiled at Chloe. “You’re right. The resemblance is uncanny. Only, he’s cuter. Sort of. I mean, he’s got that been-around-the-block a few times too many look, but he’s cute.”

Dean stared back at her, clearly wondering if she was complimenting him or insulting him. Chloe grinned, remembering the times before Lois and Clark had fallen in love. Lois had always had a habit of saying something that could sound like an insult and a compliment at the same time. “Thanks, I think.”

Sam grinned and shook Lois’ hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Lois. Uh, so, anyway, Dean and I were talking on the way up and I’ve been doing a bit of research. It turns out our victims were not the only ones. This thing has been moving across the country.”

“How so?” Clark asked.

“We found several reports of victims, some of them homeless, who died the same way. The homeless cases didn’t get much coverage.”

“So, this thing’s definitely trying to find a body,” Chloe said. 

“Sure sounds like it,” Dean replied. “One thing’s for sure, it’s not a demon.”

“Believe me, we’ve checked,” Sam said, sitting down next to Clark at the table. “There’s no lore at all around something like this. So, what’s our next step?”

Dean looked at his brother. “Like I said. We talk to Superman. If anybody knows what this thing is, he should.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Sam learn Superman's real identity.

Dean noticed Chloe exchanging a look with the couple and wondered what was going on. He glanced again at Sam who shrugged as the three of them left the room.

He sat down, sighing. If this thing really was of extra-terrestrial origin then there really wasn’t a case for them. They dealt with things of a supernatural nature.

He murmured this to Sam even while trying to hear snippets of the conversation in the other room.

“That may be so,” Sam said, “but I still think we should help them out.”

“And do what, exactly? This thing is looking to inhabit a body.”

“So do demons,” his brother pointed out. “If this is how you feel, then what are we doing here at all?”

Dean had no answer for that. The truth was, he was kind of taken with the feisty blonde. She obviously knew what she was about to tackle was dangerous but she wasn’t backing down. He found that kind of hot.

He’d been with a few women in his time but most of them, when they found out exactly what he did for a living, either tried to get him to stop, or decided it wasn’t worth it. He knew how dangerous it was. Hell, they’d cheated death that many times he’d lost count. 

When he’d lived with Lisa Braeden for a year, she’d often asked him how he could suddenly settle down to the apple-pie life, when hunting the supernatural was all he ever knew. What he’d never told her was that whole year he’d had moments where he’d be looking over his shoulder, wondering if the next person he met was a demon.

He’d always been on the alert, knowing that the happy life he had couldn’t last. The fact that he was proved right in the end didn’t make it hurt any less. 

He’d had thoughts of asking Lisa to go out on a hunt with him, but he knew she wouldn’t be able to take that kind of life. She was too soft. Not in a bad way, he told himself. She just wasn’t tough enough.

Now Chloe, on the other hand, was a pretty tough chick. If he did say so himself. Just the few things she’d already told him about the strange stuff that had happened in her life had given him that idea. 

He looked up as Chloe, Clark and Lois came back in. Clark did not look happy but both women shot him a look.

“What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room. Under any circumstances,” Chloe said, with a pointed glare at Dean. “That means, you don’t spill your guts to any of your hunter friends and you sure as hell don’t go telling any demons.”

Dean shrugged and smirked. “Don’t look at me. Sam’s the crybaby.”

His brother poked him. “Jerk.”

“Bitch,” he responded automatically. “So?”

“Meet Superman,” Lois said, nodding at her husband.

Dean stared at him. Of course he'd met Superman in the motel the night before and Clark Kent looked and sounded nothing like him. Okay, so maybe there was a little bit of a resemblance, but this guy was the very definition of a geek. Nerdy glasses, neatly combed hair, uptight disposition. Truth was, Dean couldn’t figure out what a gorgeous chick like Lois Lane would see in a guy like him.

Clark shot his wife a look. There seemed to be some kind of non-verbal communication between them before he sighed and removed his glasses. Suddenly it was as if his entire demeanour changed. He appeared to stand taller, his shoulders back so his upper torso no longer looked hunched. 

Sam gasped. “Dear God. That’s amazing! You’re like hiding in plain sight.”

Dean stared. “Son of a bitch!” Now those little stumbles Chloe had made over the name made sense. 

Chloe sat down beside them. “Like I said … we don’t know why it works or how it works, but …”

“It’s like people only see what they want to see. Most people go on with their lives as if demons and monsters didn’t exist because that’s how they want to perceive the world.”

“Kinda like they have this bubble around them. Even when they’re faced with the truth, they still live in the bubble,” Dean explained. “So yeah, it makes the sort of sense that doesn’t.” He looked at Clark. “You don’t have to worry. We won’t tell a soul.”

Clark appeared relieved. “Thanks.”

“Great,” Lois said. “Now that’s out of the way …”

“Could you explain more about the Phantom Zone?” Sam asked.

Clark nodded. “It’s, or it was, an inter-dimensional prison. My birth father created it, back on Krypton. It housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the twenty-eight known galaxies.”

“Twenty-eight?” Sam asked.

Dean didn’t know much about astronomy but he knew enough to know the Milky Way Galaxy was massive. In terms of the universe, the galaxy was just one little marble in a whole bag of them. Okay, so that was a movie, but it could be true, he thought.

“So, how many criminals are we talking?” he asked.

Clark shrugged. “I don’t know. Hundreds? Thousands? For some of them, Jor-El had their spirits ripped from their corporeal bodies.”

“Wraiths,” Sam broke in. “Yeah, Chloe explained that part.”

“Who’s Jor-El?” Dean asked.

“My birth father. My birth name is Kal-El.”

“So why would this, uh, Zoner, come to Earth?”

“Because a lot of the wraiths have a score to settle with Jor-El, and since everyone on Krypton except for Clark and his cousin died, they figure Clark’s the next best thing.”

Sam frowned. “What do you mean, everyone on Krypton?”

“Long story,” Clark said.

Lois glanced at her husband. “Cataclysm, explosion, millions, probably billions were forbidden to leave the planet, so they died.”

“Apparently not that long,” Dean replied with a smirk at the Kryptonian before he could respond to his wife’s comment. 

“So how did you survive it?” Sam asked. Dean nudged his brother, who cocked an eyebrow. “What? I’m curious.”

“My parents sent me here in a ship not long after I was born. I was adopted by the Kents and I grew up here on this farm.”

“How do you think the Zoner got out?” Sam asked. “If it was imprisoned in this … what did you say it was?”

“Inter-dimensional prison.”

Clark went on to explain that a few years earlier a man named Zod had managed to escape the Zone, sending Clark there in his place. Clark had then found an escape route, with the help of someone who had worked with his father, but in the process had released a few Zoners.

“I thought I’d got them all,” he said. He looked grieved. Lois nudged him.

“Smallville, we’ve talked about this. Dark Thursday was not your fault.”

“I still let Zod out.”

Chloe sighed and shook her head at the brothers. “Old argument. Clark, don’t forget you were up against a machine, which would have considered all the possibilities. Zod would have been released anyway, no matter what you did or didn’t do.”

“What machine?” Sam asked, looking interested.

“An artificial intelligence. Another long story which you won’t get to hear.”

Damn, they were leaving out a lot of juicy information.

“Anyway, Smallville. We don’t know if the wraith escaped then or if they escaped when Zod let Slade out. I mean, don’t you think there would have been a lot more deaths over like the last six years?”

Clark looked at her. “You’re right, you’re right, I know you’re right.”

She shrugged. “I’m always right,”

“Except when you’re not,” Clark muttered. She shot a glare at him.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You are so going to get it, Clark Kent.”

“Get what?” he asked, grinning at her. It looked like this was an old game. 

Sam decided to give them a dose of reality.

“Okay, so if this thing really is a wraith, I have two questions. No, three. One, how do we find this thing? Two, what does it want? Three, how do we stop it?”

Chloe shook her head. “Sorry, Sam, there is no ‘we’. This isn’t something you can go up against.”

“There has to be something we can do. What about EMF?”

“EMF?” Lois asked.

“Electro-Magnetic Frequency,” Dean said. Lois scowled at him. 

“I know what it means, but how is this going to help?”

“Well, we use EMF detectors when we’re hunting ghosts,” Sam explained quietly. “They can measure any change in a surrounding magnetic field. So if we get a high reading, it usually means there’s some kind of paranormal activity going on.”

“I don’t see how that can help us track a wraith,” Clark said.

“You said the spirit is ripped from the corporeal body. Well, that’s basically what a ghost is.”

“We took some readings at that crime scene in Oklahoma. We did get something. Not enough to draw any kind of conclusion, but …” Dean shrugged. 

“So, you’re thinking you might be able to track this thing by using those readings. Okay, that’s possible. We could probably boost the signal using some of the stuff from Watchtower,” Chloe added, looking at her friends. 

“In answer to your other questions, what does it want? Probably me.”

“We don’t know that, honey,” Lois told her husband. Clark shook his head and turned back to them.

“It’s looking for a body it can inhabit for a few days. Long enough probably to fight me.”

“Yeah, but the human body isn’t built to take a Kryptonian,” Chloe pointed out. “With or without their powers. Or do I need to remind you about Bizarro Clark?”

Dean stared at her. “Bizarro Clark?”

“It was a Phantom created in a lab on Krypton. It took a few people as hosts but most of the bodies were destroyed within hours.”

“It then managed to get a few cells of Clark’s DNA and cloned him. It’s dead now, isn’t it?” Lois looked to her husband for confirmation.

Clark nodded. “Yeah. Remember? I told you, Lana destroyed it with blue Kryptonite.”

Dean smirked. He thought their lives were weird but it looked like Superman’s was even weirder. 

“So, how do we destroy it?” he asked.

“There’s a crystal. We keep it in the fortress.”

“But would it work with the Phantom Zone destroyed?” Lois asked. 

Clark sighed. “Probably not. I’d need to talk to Jor-El, see if he can come up with a solution.”

Wait! What? Dean stared. “I thought you said Jor-El was dead?”

“He is. This is sort of an artificial representation of him,” Clark explained.

Oh yeah, their lives were way less complicated, Dean thought. Apocalypse? Pfft, he snorted to himself. Compared to what Superman had to deal with. Piece of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurred to me that when it's explained how it is in the chapter that Superman's life is really kind of bizarre, hence Dean's thoughts in the chapter. 
> 
> Anyway, it's just over two hours to 2018 so from me here in NZ to everyone, Happy New Year.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe takes the brothers to Watchtower

Chloe decided the first order of business was to try out Sam’s suggestion of using EMF. While her laptop was state-of-the-art, it wasn’t quite powerful enough to do what she hoped to do, which was access the network and see if they could get any readings. 

Clark was going to the fortress to see what Jor-El could do to help and Lois was going to check in with her contacts in the local police to see if they had any reports or attacks. 

She suggested Sam and Dean follow her in their car. It was about an hour or so to Metropolis and another twenty minutes to get to the central hub which was Watchtower.   
She glanced in the rear-vision mirror now and again, curious about Dean’s reaction to the fact that Clark was Superman. Okay, so the man was obviously used to dealing with the supernatural but an honest-to-goodness alien raised on Earth should have garnered more than his calm reaction. 

She still remembered the day Clark had told her everything about himself. While she’d had a few months to grow used to the fact that her best friend had abilities beyond that of normal humans, she had assumed he was like every other person of the super-powered persuasion. That he’d got his abilities by being exposed to meteor rock.

That conversation had been an eye opener for sure. Chloe had somehow managed to get herself transported to the North Pole where her friend had constructed the Kryptonian fortress. She’d followed him, only to almost freeze to death. Clark had taken her to a hospital in Alaska where she’d revealed how long she’d known about his abilities. The next thing he’d said had thrown her for a loop.

“The meteor rocks – they didn’t make me the way I am.”

She’d stared at him. “So, you’re saying you were born this way?”

He appeared almost reluctant as he told her the rest. “I wasn’t born anywhere near Smallville. In fact, I wasn’t born anywhere near this galaxy.”

She had looked him over, barely able to form the words. He’d looked almost despondent, as if he’d been expecting her to freak out, tell him to leave, rather than ask more questions. 

They’d had their ups and downs since then. There had been times when Chloe had felt like he was taking advantage of her skills. She’d heard him praise her to his cousin Kara, telling the blonde Kryptonian that she was smarter than both of them combined. Yet there were times when she’d felt like he saw her as his own personal search engine. 

The honk of a horn brought her out of her reverie and she looked up, realising they were approaching the domed building that housed Watchtower. She pulled into the parking lot a block from the building and grabbed her things from the car. Oliver had made sure that there were at least two paid parks in the lot.

Dean pulled in beside her car and the brothers got out.

“So where is this place?” the elder hunter asked.

“It’s just up here,” she said, leading them to the building’s entry. She inserted her card to unlock the door then headed for the elevator. She held the doors open, nodding for the two men to join her. 

The security system beeped. Chloe had had it upgraded so now it didn’t rely on voice confirmation, it also required retinal scan and fingerprints. 

She noticed Dean watching curiously. “Kinda overkill isn’t it?” he asked.

“Not when you have Lex Luthor for an enemy,” she said.

“I thought Lex was the one who told you about the latest victim?” Sam asked.

“Sure, but just because he called us, doesn’t mean he isn’t covering his own ass.”

The elevator reached the top floor and the doors opened. Chloe led them out and opened two double doors. A redheaded woman stood at the bank of computers, her fingers working quickly on the keyboard. She turned at their entry. 

“Tess, this is Dean and Sam Winchester.”

The redhead nodded. “I know. I’ve been monitoring your communications.” She looked coolly at the two hunters. “Tess Mercer. Or if you prefer, Tess 2.0.”

“Tess 2.0?” Sam asked, eyeing her with confusion.

Chloe smiled at Dean’s younger brother. “It’s a long story but basically, Tess is, well, sort of a robot. She can project a holographic image which allows her to look like a human.”

Dean whistled. “Kinda hot for a robot.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. Tess smirked at her before turning to the other man.

“I wouldn’t want to test that theory,” she said. She resumed her work. “I presume you want me to access the network and see if we can track down this wraith?” she asked.

“Sam, why don’t you show Tess your detector and see if you can both come up with something workable,” Chloe suggested. 

She watched as the taller man nodded and took out what appeared to be a smart phone. Chloe sighed and went to the fridge to get herself a bottle of water. 

Dean was busy looking around. He reached out to touch a key on the touch pad but Chloe quickly intervened. 

“Don’t touch that,” she said.

“Why?” he asked with a grin. “What will happen if I do?”

“You really don’t want to go there.”

He shrugged and followed her as she sat down on the couch.

“So, what’s your story?” he asked. 

She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“Why you? I mean, you told me about your Wall of Weird but I don’t get you and Clark.”

“He’s my friend,” she said. “I’ve known him since eighth grade.” She studied him. “I mean, I could ask you the same thing. You could have walked away. Hunting monsters isn’t exactly a safe profession. So why do it?”

He looked thoughtful. “Because it’s all I know. I’ve been doing this since I was four years old and Sam was in diapers. A demon killed our mom. Our father spent the rest of his life trying to find it and we were pulled along for the ride.”

“But he found it, didn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“So, you could have just walked away from that point.”

“Not really,” he said.

She listened as he related the things they’d done. Dean and Sam had both been to hell and back - quite literally. They’d saved the world on several occasions, yet there were never any accolades at the end of it. There was no one to stand up and say ‘good job’. Yet it seemed they kept going because it was the right thing to do.

“That’s kind of why I do what I do,” she told him. “I mean, Clark has all these amazing abilities, sure, but just because I don’t have super powers doesn’t mean I’m just going to stand by and watch him do all the work. Everyone in the League plays their part in helping to make the world a better place.” 

She watched Sam and Tess for a minute before turning back to the older man. 

“Are there times when I wish I had a simpler life? Sure. Right before I had my fling with Oliver it was sort of brought to my attention that I didn’t know how to have fun anymore. I guess we get so caught up in the mission that we forget there’s a part of us that needs to step back and take a personal day. That’s kind of why Clark and Lois work so well together. It’s not just that she’s his equal. It’s that she’s there to give him a respite from being Superman. You know, having amazing abilities doesn’t mean you don’t feel stressed.”

She looked at him keenly.

“What about you, Dean? What do you do for fun?”

He shrugged. “I’m not even sure I know what that is anymore.” There was a long sigh. “Sometimes Sam and I will just get in the car and we’ll drive somewhere. Anywhere that doesn’t involve a case. We’ll put on some Zeppelin or something and just … drive.”

She looked at him sympathetically. Dean appeared to be the type of man who didn’t let his emotions show but she realised that the years of hunting, all the people they’d lost, weighed heavily on him. His brother was an adult but in many ways he still felt responsible for Sam. 

“Bothers you, doesn’t it?” Dean said after a long silence.

“What?”

“The hunting.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just … it seems like a heavy price to pay. Travelling around, never really being able to settle down anywhere.” She gazed through the round observation window. 

She’d never really thought about what the building had once been used for or why the tower itself had been shaped the way it was. Maybe it had been some kind of observatory once upon a time. She remembered when she’d first seen it, the night Jimmy had been killed. He’d told her she could see all of Metropolis from the building and no matter where she was in the city she could look up and know he was watching over her.

She still missed the man she had married, even though at times she wondered if they really would have worked out. If Davis hadn’t killed him. The years before she’d met Jimmy had been lonely ones. She’d had Clark, of course, and thought she’d loved him, but he’d never really been hers, not the way he was with Lois.

“My cousin told me once that everyone needs someone who makes their burden easier to bear. I look at her and Clark and I understand what she meant.”

“Our burdens are somewhat different.”

“Maybe on the surface but fundamentally I think it’s the same thing. Clark might not be fighting monsters all the time, like you and your brother, but …”

“I guess fighting spirits from an inter-dimensional prison could be similar,” Dean conceded. “I guess you understand more than I thought you would.”

“Well, thanks, I think.”

“No, don’t get me wrong. When we first met, I kinda had you pegged wrong. Even then I knew you were a tough chick and all that but I didn’t think you would be able to handle what I do.”

“And now?” she asked. She was aware they were sitting very close together, barely inches apart. She couldn’t help staring at his full lips, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he cracked a tiny smile. She wondered whether his eyes would sparkle when he laughed. She wondered what his laugh would sound like. Would it be deep and husky like his speaking voice?

She wanted to hear him laugh, make him smile. She had the impression that was something he did very rarely.

He probably was well-aware of how good-looking he was. She remembered her first impressions of him, the way he’d flirted with the waitress in the diner in Oklahoma. It wasn’t just the way he had talked to her. It was the way he held himself; the confidence in his demeanour which told her he not only knew how to get women to react to him he enjoyed it. 

Oliver had been like that too, in a lot of ways. She had meant what she had told the brothers about her fling with the Star City billionaire. He’d still thought he was in love with Lois, even though that ship had long sailed and her cousin had fallen hard for Clark. She had never wanted to be the kind of woman who could settle for being ‘rebound girl’. She’d spent half her life feeling like second best. So, she’d ended the fling before she could get her heart broken all over again. 

She wanted someone to look at her like she was the centre of his universe. Maybe Dean wasn’t that kind of man either. God knew, he had other things that were more important, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t explore this, whatever it was. 

She felt a hand on her knee and stared at him.

“You think too much,” he said before his lips descended on hers.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Sam discuss how to stop the wraith

If there was one thing Dean could say about Chloe Sullivan, it was that she was one hell of a good kisser. He didn’t know why she was single or what had happened between her and the douche she’d had a fling with, but the men who had rejected her were complete idiots and blind to boot. Of all the women he’d kissed, and he’d known some, Chloe was, well, there really was no other word for it. 

Amazing.

He didn’t usually like to compare notes with all the women he’d bedded. Each one of them had different qualities that appealed. Of course, there really only had been a few who had stood out. Like Cassie, and Lisa. The rest, well, they had really just been a means to an end – the end being scratching an itch. 

Life as a hunter just didn’t leave room for relationships. Not romantic ones, anyway. It was usually wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Not that most of them appeared to mind. He tried to make it clear there was nothing at the end of the road. 

Now there was Chloe. If he’d been honest with himself from the start, the reason she had bugged him so much at that first meeting was because he had been attracted. Okay, so she had annoyed him for the most part but he’d been attracted nonetheless.

If they’d been alone, he would have wasted no time in finding a bed somewhere and ignoring all his other instincts. Hell, it wasn’t like they didn’t have the time. It would probably take a few hours for them to locate this Zoner and he was sure the hour or two to show Chloe just how he hot he thought she was wouldn’t make much difference. 

“Ahem!”

Son of a bitch!

He looked up at his brother who was grinning smugly. 

“We think we might have something.”

Yeah, so did I, for a minute or two, he grumbled silently. He glanced at Chloe but she’d already pulled away from him and was getting up to join Tess at the bank of computers. 

Sam was shaking his head and sighing. Dean knew what that meant. 

“Shut up!” he muttered. 

“We don’t have time for this,” his brother told him. 

“What did I just say?” Dean accused, glaring up at the younger Winchester, and how was it fair that Sam was the taller one of them? Maybe by a couple of inches but it still wasn’t fair!

Chloe was already busy at the computer, typing something on the keyboard. A map of the city appeared on the huge screen in front of them. There were several glowing dots at various points on the map. 

“So, Tess and Sam were able to modify the frequency generator so it only showed incidences of high electro-magnetic activity – basically the same frequency as that generated by the supernatural. Unfortunately, it’s not going to show any differential between that of the Zoner and any other supernatural activity.”

Dean studied the map. There were at least a hundred small dots, maybe even more. 

“Well, that’s just great!” he said. 

Chloe looked at him. “I know it doesn’t seem all that helpful in tracking down our guy but it’s not exactly a needle-in-a-haystack. We still have Superman.”

“Don’t forget about me.”

Lois stood in the doorway. She looked at her cousin. 

“Clark not back from the fortress yet?”

Chloe shook her head. “No. Tess, any reported sightings of Superman?”

Tess did something on her side of the computer banks and shook her head. 

“Nothing.”

“Hmm.” Lois entered the room and handed her cousin what looked to Dean like a flashdrive. Chloe plugged it in.

“I talked to John Jones at Metro P.D.,” she said. “There have been more attacks of meta-humans. Those who have Krypto-powers, anyway.”

Chloe frowned as she studied the screen, typing again on the keyboard. She began connecting some of the dots on the map. Lois studied the map.

“Hey, isn’t that Stryker’s Island?” she asked, pointing to a small dot located in the bay not far from the mainland. “Didn’t they imprison a meteor freak there about a year ago?”

“Not to mention the Toyman,” Chloe murmured.

“The Toyman?” Dean asked. “Who’s he?”

“His real name is Winslow Schott,” Chloe replied. “He’s a genius in electronics but he’s also mad as a hatter. And that’s saying something. He tried to kill Oliver Queen a few years ago.”

“Don’t forget the day he tried to program you to kill Clark,” Tess told Lois.

Sam frowned. “What?”

Chloe looked at him. “Yeah. Schott was part of this group called Marionette Ventures. He and some others used these devices to program some people so they could force a few people out of business. It’s all to do with controlling the water aquifer. Making a profit from the city’s use of the water supply.”

“Or holding it to ransom,” Lois said darkly. The brothers frowned at her.

“It’s a long story,” she said. “Anyway, Jor-El gave me Clark’s powers for the day so I could see things from Clark’s perspective and Schott figured he could use the device on me so I would kill Clark for him. Thankfully he managed to stall me long enough for the powers to transfer back to him.”

“And I thought our lives were strange,” Sam quipped with a grin. 

Dean couldn’t agree more. Sure, they’d dealt with demons, the King of Hell, Angels, the end of the world stuff, but they were much easier to understand than power-hungry humans. As he’d once said, demons and ghosts were easy. People were crazy. 

“Anyway, back to the problem at hand,” Chloe said. “What did John Jones say about the attack on Stryker’s?”

“All I know is the prisoner was found dead in his cell. His body was mutilated.”

“I thought this thing was only going after chicks?” Dean asked.

“Apparently not,” Chloe answered. “Maybe it realised that the women weren’t the only ones with Krypto powers. What do we know about this guy?”

Lois moved to another computer and accessed the Daily Planet archives. She brought up the article she’d written.

“Here we are. He could turn himself into a fireball.” She frowned. “I remember that. The flames were green. Clark couldn’t get near him.”

“Why not?” Sam asked.

Lois bit her lip. “Uh, because Clark …”

“Because I’m vulnerable to Kryptonite.”

“Kryptonite?” Dean asked, turning to look at Clark. He’d heard it mentioned before but hadn’t questioned it at the time. 

Clark was dressed in his Superman uniform. He hadn’t studied it much the other night when the other man had turned up at the motel in Oklahoma, but now that he saw it in this light, it appeared way too bright. 

“Meteor rock,” Chloe told him.

“Radioactive pieces of my homeworld.”

Lois went to her husband. “Everything okay?” she asked as she hugged him.

“It’s fine. What about Ronan?” he said, looking at the screen.

“He’s dead,” Chloe told him. “Apparently the Zoner got to him.”

Clark sighed. “Then it’s worse than we thought. Not only is the Zoner broadening its search but it looks like it might be trying to absorb the powers of each one it kills.”

“How do you figure that?” Dean asked.

“Oliver had the autopsy report from the first one in Star City sent to a friend of ours. He works on retainer for the Justice League. There was no meteor rock in the woman’s blood. I’m guessing they’ll find the same thing in the girl in Oklahoma.”

Sam frowned. “How would the pathologist know what to look for?” he said. 

“Well, they wouldn’t,” Chloe explained. “But the meteor-infection shows up as an anomaly in the blood. If it was still present during autopsy, they’d have to note it.”

Dean nodded. “I guess you’d know. So much for your theory that it’s trying to find a corporeal body to inhabit.”

“If this thing has taken on Ronan’s powers, it’s going to be even more difficult to defeat it,” Clark said. “He nearly killed me.”

Lois shuddered. “Yeah, I remember only too well. Clark, you can’t take this thing on alone.”

“We can’t ask John Jones. He’s terrified of fire, remember?”

“I’m guessing the usual rock salt trick won’t work with this thing either,” Dean said, looking at his brother. 

“Rock salt?”

Dean nodded at Chloe. “Yeah. Don’t ask me how it works but we can ward off a ghost with rock salt until we can salt and burn its bones.”

“Must be something to do with the ghost’s molecular structure,” the blonde mused. “Maybe it interrupts the frequency.”

“Yeah, well, it’s also pretty handy at keeping demons away,” Sam put in.

“So what did Jor-El have to say?” Lois asked her husband. 

“Not much. Without the Phantom Zone, we’ve nothing to hold it.”

“Not unless we could re-create the Zone,” the brunette suggested. 

“I’m not exactly a scientist, Lois,” the dark-haired man replied. 

“Well, it’s only one Zoner. How hard could it be to build some kind of cell? They did it on Ghostbusters!” Dean said with a smirk. 

Chloe rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“It wouldn’t work anyway,” Clark replied. “The Phantom Zone was an inter-dimensional prison. It was the only thing that would hold the wraiths.”

“How did this inter-dimensional thingy work anyway?” Dean asked. 

“I don’t really know. Like I said, I’m not a scientist.”

“But you must have some idea,” Sam interjected.

“All I know is time worked differently there. A month there could be like a year here. There was this girl. She was my father’s assistant on Krypton. When I met her about twenty years had passed since the destruction of the planet but she was still young. As if hardly any time had passed at all. 

Dean still had vivid memories of being in Hell. Of the years that had passed only for him to discover when he was brought back to Earth by Castiel that it had only been a few months. If it was possible for a month to be like ten years in Hell, then it had to be possible to work the other way as well. 

“You know, this sounds a lot like Hell. Or maybe Purgatory,” he said. “What if there was a way to open up a Hell dimension, or even sending it to Purgatory?”

Sam frowned at him. “You think there might be?” he asked.

He shrugged. “Well, sure. I mean, we sent ol’ Dick back to Purgatory.”

“And you along with him,” his brother reminded him.

“Yeah, that wasn’t so good.”

It was Chloe’s turn to frown. “Do you think it could work?” she asked.

Clark spoke up. “Well, let’s look at it this way. Certain cultures would see Superman like some sort of God, or even demon. I mean, what if the gods of various cultures were actually just super-powered beings?”

“Like some conspiracy theorists say God is actually an alien,” Lois added. 

“The wraith is sort of like a ghost. Some ghosts do have the ability to possess people, or certain objects,” Sam mused. He looked at Dean. “Remember that girl who possessed those mannequins?”

Dean shuddered. Yeah, he remembered all right. 

“There’s just one problem,” he said. “Even if we do manage to open the door, how do we get this thing into Purgatory?”

Clark looked at him. “I think the answer to that is obvious. This thing has been absorbing powers to make itself stronger. It’s clearly coming after me.”

“Smallville, no!” Lois said. Clark looked at his wife.

“Yes,” he said. He turned back to the brothers. “Use me as bait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay in posting this chapter. I moved house and no longer have the internet at home so I have to go elsewhere :(


End file.
